Scenic Corridor Design Guidelines

The Scenic Corridors Design Guidelines are a part of the City of Scottsdale’s Sensitive Design Program. The Scottsdale Sensitive Design Program is a comprehensive compilation of policies and guidelines related to the City's built environment. The basic framework for these policies and guidelines are the Scottsdale Sensitive Design Principles, initially approved by the Development Review Board in 2000. The Principles, derived from existing city policies and from concepts developed by citizen groups such as Great Sonoran, articulate Scottsdale's design vision and outline design expectations and values. Like all City of Scottsdale design guidelines, the Scenic Corridor Design Guidelines are polices and should not be construed as ordinance.

These policies are standards, details, and concepts that are to be used to establish the health, safety, welfare, quality and character of physical improvements within the city. These policies also create the basis for visual character within and along certain major roadways having a particular emphasis on retaining and displaying the native desert and traditional southwest cultural heritage of the area.

The guidelines provide an outline of the City’s design expectations for all designated Scenic Corridors, and are intended to be used by all participants in the development process including citizens, policy makers, design professionals, and developers.

Scenic Corridor Vision Statement:

Scottsdale citizens value the natural desert setting along the northern and eastern portions of major thoroughfares in our community. There is an understanding by the community at large that these should be preserved or recreated as meaningful open space. The City’s General Plan reflects this commitment by designating portions of Scottsdale Road, Pima Road, The Carefree Highway, Cave Creek Road, Dynamite Boulevard, and Shea Boulevard as Scenic Corridors.

Recognizing the value of community character, on the behalf of our citizens, the City of Scottsdale has pledged to take certain steps to protect this valued resource of natural linear open space from rapidly approaching development. Those steps include:

Constructing new, expanding existing, and over time, retrofitting existing roadways designated as Scenic Corridors so that the design policies and guidelines found in this document are carried out.

Working to restore and maintain the natural beauty of the Sonoran Desert within the scenic desert landscape setbacks along these corridors of regional significance.

Applying the design policies and guidelines found in this document to public and private development on both edges of these corridors.

Educating staff, policy makers, and the public about the existence, goals and benefits of Scenic Corridors in their community.